Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

George Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) has announced the availability of $10 million in grants to communities seeking systemic changes to provide treatment on demand for individuals with alcohol and other drug problems.

The Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative "is designed to create an awareness of -- and increase resources to close -- an alarming treatment gap: currently, four out of five Americans who need drug and alcohol addiction treatment are unable to get it," according to OSI. "The initiative aims to mobilize public support for expanded treatment by increasing public funding, broadening insurance coverage, and achieving greater program efficiency."

"The basic intent is assuring equal access to institutions and services by all people," said Victor A. Capoccia, Ph.D., head of OSI's Baltimore office, which pioneered the project as part of its Tackling Drug Addiction program area. Grants of up to $600,000 will be awarded to "multi-stakeholder partnerships in jurisdictions at the state, county or city level," according to the program announcement.

Activities that may be supported under the grants include information gathering and dissemination, communications, and public-policy advocacy. Projects in the half-dozen or more communities chosen to participate in Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative will be expected to develop and advance specific solutions to systemic problems that prevent delivery of treatment services.